Jugendstil / Wiener Werkstätte
Ideas from the Arts & Crafts movement began flourishing across Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. They not only informed the aesthetics of this prosperous period but also profoundly reshaped the very concept of art, opening the way to the development of design and mass production and bringing fine art and applied arts into closer dialogue. In Britain, Germany, France and Austria these ideas spread widely, becoming catalysts for artistic circles and groups from which the names Jugendstil, Vienna Secession and Art Nouveau emerged and grew at the turn of the century. All shared the same desire to look beyond traditional and established art, embracing innovation and progress while democratising and integrating different artistic forms. William Morris, Gustav Klimt, August Endell, Henry Van de Velde and Victor Horta were among the artists, architects, designers and writers who shaped this Europe‑wide movement, which permeated the intellectual community until the First World War, before giving way to the Art Deco period and still passing its legacy on to modernism and the Bauhaus.